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Renshaw to go for glory

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AUSTRALIAN Mark Renshaw is ready to take a step up as the
trusted wingman to British sprint star Mark Cavendish at the Tour
of Qatar and try for stage wins himself should the 'Manx Missile'
feel he is not yet at his best.

Because of his role as Cavendish's last lead-out man in the
bunch sprints, Renshaw (HTC-Highroad) has a mighty turn of top-end
speed himself and when given the chance is more than capable at
winning races. After setting up Cavendish for wins, the New South
Wales rider often finishes second himself.

The 714-kilometre Tour of Qatar starts later today (Melbourne
time) with a two-kilometre prologue time trial that is favoured to
put Switzerland's four-time world time-trial champion Fabian
Cancellara (Leopard) up against Australian 4000-metre individual
pursuit world record-holder Jack Bobridge (Garmin-Cervelo).

But from Monday to Friday's finish the tour is ideal for
sprinters. And there is an abundance of world class sprinters at
Qatar too. Along with Cavendish and Renshaw, they are Belgian Tom
Boonen (QuickStep) who has won the tour three times, Australians
Heinrich Haussler (Garmin-Cervelo) and Graeme Brown (Rabobank),
Dutchman Theo Bos (Rabobank), and Italians Filippo Pozzato
(Katusha) and Francisco Chicchi (QuickStep).

''We will see how 'Cav' is going first. But if he thinks he
still not yet up for it, I'll have a go myself,'' Renshaw said
after his first day in Doha.

Renshaw said the recent Tour Down Under had taken ''a lot longer
to recover from'' than he had anticipated. ''But I feel pretty good
now,'' he said ahead of the start in Doha.

For the HTC-Highroad team, the performance benchmark had been
set high earlier by their women's team that dominated the Ladies
Tour of Qatar.

The three-stage women's tour ended on Friday with Dutchwoman
Ellen van Dijk (HTC-Highroad) winning the overall race after taking
the lead with her victory in Thursday's second stage. Van Dijk also
won the points and best young rider categories, while HTC-Highroad
finished as best team.

Van Dijk's overall win was by 15 seconds over her German
teammate Charlotte Becker (HTC-Highroad) and 20 seconds on
Dutchwoman Iris Slappendel (Garmin-Cervelo). Australian Alexis
Rhodes (Garmin-Cervelo) was fourth at 26 seconds, while Gilmore was
eighth at two minutes.

For the HTC-Highroad team, the result was a fitting tribute to
its South African teammate Carla Swart who died two weeks ago after
being hit by a truck while training at home.

Van Dijk dedicated the win to Swart. ''She died in an accident
and it's really sad and very hard for us all and we wanted to win
for her here.''

■ Disgraced Spanish cyclist Alberto Contador regards his
proposed one-year ban as the result of anti-doping rules which are
''stuck in the 60s''.

Contador could lose his 2010 Tour de France title and be left
off the starting line in July after failing a doping test at last
year's competition.

Spanish cycling authorities accept Contador unintentionally
ingested clenbuterol after eating contaminated meat and have
initially ruled Contador should be banned but not for the standard
two years.

Contador, a three-time Tour champion, has until February 9 to
submit further evidence.

''Today, advances in science are able to detect minute amounts
of some banned substances, which neither further athletic
performance nor can possibly be taken voluntarily, except if they
enter our bodies through ingested food - this is my case with
clenbuterol,'' Contador said on Friday on his website. ''The rule
remains stuck in the 60s, hence my 'crime' and possible
sanction.''

Contador called the initial one-year ban ''shameful'' and said
the episode has left him feeling like a ''victim of the
system.''

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